Pending Home Sales Jump In May; Drop YoY For 8th Month In A Row

Pending home sales surged by 6.1% MoM in May; this is the largest jump since April 2010 (when first-time buyers scrambled to sign contracts before tax credits expired. However, exuberant spike aside, this is the 8th month in a row of a year-over-year drop in home sales. NAR is ever-optimistic suggesting "sales should exceed an annual pace of five million homes," amid low rates, inventory and job creation (goldilocks?). The sales, unsurprisingly, are all high-end: "The flourishing stock market the last few years has propelled sales in the higher price brackets," as lower-cost home sales plunge.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, expects improving home sales in the second half of the year. “Sales should exceed an annual pace of five million homes in some of the upcoming months behind favorable mortgage rates, more inventory and improved job creation,” he said. “However, second-half sales growth won’t be enough to compensate for the sluggish first quarter and will likely fall below last year’s total.”

May’s 6.1 percent increase was the largest month-over-month gain since April 2010 (9.6 percent), when first-time home buyers rushed to sign purchase contracts before a popular tax credit program ended.

It's all high-end sales...

“The flourishing stock market the last few years has propelled sales in the higher price brackets, while sales for homes under $250,000 are 10 percent behind last year’s pace. Meanwhile, apartment rents are expected to rise 8 percent cumulatively over the next two years because of tight availability,” said Yun. “Solid income growth and a slight easing in underwriting standards are needed to encourage first-time buyer participation, especially as renting becomes less affordable.”

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“Sales should exceed an annual pace of five million homes in some of the upcoming months behind favorable mortgage rates, more inventory and improved job creation,”

Great spin maybe this clown can tell the 93,000,000 Americans without work where the improved job CREATION is. As for the rates, there have been artificially held down with printed money and the Belgium connection Ponzi scheme! No signs of any improvement when you have a NEGATIVE 2.9% growth in GDP.

The key word here is "pending"....wait until the buyer backs out and the house 'falls out' into an ever expanding stagnant inventory and the builder struggles to dump them onto some sucker who can only affrord zero down or 2.50% down on his/her meager salary and become a Debt Slave for Life ('DSFL').

I applied for a loan to become a "first time slum lord buyer" of a dilapidated apartment building. Funny thing is, I did it at 4 different banks and pledged the same building to all four as collateral.

They'll never catch me, Oracle. I'm just too freakin' fast. Besides, look at all the times it's been done elsewhere in the world- Spain, Italy, China, etc. What makes you think I can't get away with this?

Someone with all data feeds (futures/options/equities) could look into that~ oh wait nevermind, bit o' problem seeing that timing of dark pool trades isn't available to us peons that don't run the dark pools.

Yes let's easy lending standards so a family of 4 making $50k a year (net) can buy that $300k house. Why not let them put 5% down, pay PMI and with upkeep, taxes, and mortgage, they'll only be paying 2k a month. Hopefully they'll have health insurance, no car payments, won't eat much, and never go on a vacation. Hopefully rates will never rise, stocks will never drop, and no one will ever lose their job. That way after 1/2 of their take home pay is gone, they can save %30, invest %30, and give 30% to charity. At least that's what I read on how your dollar should be broken down yesterday.